The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-11-25
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Practical Discourse on Parental
Duty and Responsibility.

a Practical Discourse on Parentol
Duty and Responsibility.
The Dangerous Results Of Extreme In
| diligence and Unwise Severity Con-
trasted-Dlvine Hints Which Pa
| rents Should Take Note or
| The subject Of . recent sermon by Rev.
T. De Witt Talmage at the Brooklyn
Tabernacle was "Parental Blunders."
His text was:
He fell from OF the seat backward by the side
of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died:
for he was An old man, and heavy.-L Samuel
w., IL.
/, DR.. Talmage said: This is the end Of q
long story of parental neglect. Judge Eli
was . good man, but he let his two boys,
| Hophni and Phinehas, do as they pleased,
and through overindulgence they went to
| ruin. The blind old Judge, ninety eight
years Of age, Is seated at the gate waiting
for the news of an important battle In
| which his two sons were at the front. An
express is coming with tidings from the
battle. This blind nonagenarian puts his
hand behind his ear and listens, and
cries: "What meaneth the noise Of this
| tumult?" An excited messenger, all out
of breath with the speed, said to him:
''Our army Is defeated. The sacred chest,
called the Ark. is captured. and your sons
are dead on the field" No wonder, the
father tainted and expired. The domes.
tic tragedy in which these two sons were
the tragedians had finished its fifth and
last act.
| He fell from OF the seat backward by the
| side OF the gate, and his neck brake, and he
| died: for he was an old man and heavy.
Eli had made an awful mistake in re-
gard to his children. The Bible distinctly
says:
His sons made themselves vile and he re-
| strained them not
Oh, the ten Thousand mistakes in rearing
children, mistakes of parents, mistakes OF
teachers in day school and Sabbath
classes. mistakes which we all make. Will
| it not be useful to consider them?
This country is going to be conquered
by great army, compared with which
that of Baldwin I. and Xerxes and Alex
ander and Grant and Lee. all put together,
were in numbers insignificant. They will
capture all the pulpits, store houses. fac
tories and halls Of legislation, all our
shipping, all our wealth, and all our
honors. They will take possession of all
authority, from the United States presi-
dency down to the humblest constabulary
of everything between the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans. They are on the march
now, and they halt neither day nor night.
They will soon be here, and all the present
active population of this country must
surrender and give way. l refer to the
great army OF children. Whether they
shall take possession OF every thing for
good or for bad depends upon the style
of preparation through which they
pass on their way from cradle to
throne. Cicero acknowledged he kept in
his desk collection of prefaces for books,
which prefaces he could Mt any time at
tach to any thing he wanted to publish
for himself or others: and all parents and
teachers have all prepared the preface OF
every young life under their charge, and
not only the preface, but the appendix,
whether the volume be poem or farce.
Families, and schools, and legislatures
are in our day busily engaged in discuss
ing what is the best mode of educating
children. Before this question almost
every other dwindles into insignificance,
while dependent upon its proper solution
is the welfare of government and ages
eternal. Macauley tells of the war which
Frederick II. made against Queen Maria
Theresa. And one day she appeared be.
fore the august Diet wearing mourning
for her father, and held up in her arms
before them her child, the Archduke.
This so wrought upon the officers and
deputies of the people that with half
drawn swords they broke forth in the war
cry:
Let us die for our Queen Maria Theresa!
So, this morning, realizing that the boy
of to-day is to be the ruler of the future,
tho popular sovereign, l hold him before
the American people to arouse their en-
thusiasm in his behalf, and to evoke their
cath for his defense, his education, and
his sublime destiny.
If parent, you will remember when
you were aroused to these great response
bilities, and when you found that you had
not done all required after you had ad-
mired the tiny hands, and the glossy hair,
and the bright eyes that lay in the cradle.
You suddenly remembered that that hand
would vet be raised to bless the world
with its benediction, or to smite it with q
curse.
In Ariosto's great poem there is a char
acter called Ruggiero, who has a shield of
ineffable splendor, but it is kept vailed,
save on certain occasions, and when I'M
covered it startled and overwhelmed its
behoider, who before had no suspicion of
its brightness. My hope to-day is to un.
cover the destiny of yoar child or
student, about which you may have no
especial appreciation, and fash upon you
the splendors of its immortal nature. Be-
hold the shield and tho sword of its com.
ing conflict.
Ipropose in this discourse to set forth
what consider to be some Of the errors
prevalent in the training of children.
First, remark that many err in too
great severity or too great leniency Of
family government. Between parental
tyranny and ,ruinous laxity of dis.
cipline there is a medium. Sometimes the
father errs on one side and the mother on
the other side. Good family government
is all-important Anarchy and misrule
in the domestic circle is the forerunner of
anarchy and misrule in the State. What
a repulsive spectacle is a home without
order or discipline; disobedience, and i'm
pudence, and anger. and falsehood lifting
their horrid front in the place which
should be consecrated to all that is holy,
and peaceful, and beautiful. In the at
tempt to avoid all this, and bring the
children under proper laws and regula.
tion,, parents have sometimes carried
themselves with great vigor. John How.
ard, who was merciful to the prisons and
lazarettos, was merciless in the treatment
of his children.
In some families all the discipline is
coucentred upon one child's head. II any
thing is done wrong the supposition is that
George did it. He broke the latch. He
left open the gate. He hacked the ban.
nisters. He whitfield sticks ON the car.